It is often quoted that the European innovation and entrepreneur ecosystem is unable to create startup companies that can scale-up significantly in the same way that the US is able to. However, as the recent Tech Tour Growth 50 (TTG50) index illustrates, Europe is able to build tech companies at scale, but they just don’t get the same attention as US counterparts.

Over the past few months, Tech Tour, a European tech entrepreneur and investor platform, together with Silverpeak Investment Bank and in conjunction with a selection committee of international investors researched and evaluated over 175 European private tech companies at a sub-one billion US dollar valuation.

Image: http://www.thenextsiliconvalley.com

I was recently asked to give a talk about family businesses, and the conference organizer told me not to even mention the “three generation rule.” As he put it: “Everyone already knows that family businesses don’t last.”

He’s perfectly right. An oft-cited statistic is that only 30% of family businesses make it through the second generation, 10-15% through the third, and 3-5% through the fourth. These are disheartening numbers.

The UK’s “creative economy” punches above its weight on the global stage and outstrips the performance of the US, according to a new report.  

Research by the innovation agency Nesta shows, however, that while the UK is world-leading in its creative talent, it lags North America in terms of its ability to commercialise that creative output. 

Financial technology (FinTech) as a niche is dead. No, it’s not going away. Rather, financial technology is on the cusp of becoming so entrenched in every aspect of global finance that we’ll stop thinking of it as a niche and start thinking of it as the core of how financial services is delivered to consumers, corporations and institutional investors. The rise of FinTech will actually accelerate the already blurred lines between bank and nonbank institutions, between an algorithm and a human salesforce, and between the work of machines and the work of flesh-and-blood professionals.

Johns Hopkins is launching an immunotherapy center for cancer research with a $125 million gift from longtime Hopkins donors Michael R. Bloomberg and Sidney Kimmel, along with other donors. Hopkins announced the new Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Tuesday and later today will hold a formal announcement with Hopkins leadership, former New York City Mayor and Hopkins alum Bloomberg, and Vice President Joe Biden.

Five years ago, Guy Kawasaki, a Silicon Valley tech evangelist famously said, “Singapore has five million people, six entrepreneurs and one opinion.” As opposed to Israel having five million people, six million entrepreneurs and 15 million opinions.

Five years on, according to a recent article in Tech In Asia, Singapore is ranked #10 in best startup ecosystems in the world and needless to say, we have a more vibrant startup community, from e-commerce to deep technology companies in Medtech.

What is SWOT?

SWOT is an acronym that stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats.

SWOT analysis is a methodological tool designed to help workers and companies optimize performance, maximize potential, manage competition, and minimize risk. SWOT is about making better decisions, both large and small. It can help you determine the efficacy of something as small as introducing a new product or service or something as large as a merger or acquisition. Again, SWOT is a method that, once mastered, can only enhance performance.

Software development has emerged as a key skill needed in industries ranging from health care to defense, and that’s sparking job growth in San Diego even though there aren’t any large, well-known software outfits such as Amazon or Facebook based here.

So says a new study released today by the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. It gauges the strength of the local software sector after Websense, Active Network and ServiceNow — some of the region’s best known software firms — relocated their headquarters out of San Diego over the past couple of years.

 Image: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com

Serial Entrepreneur Jonathan Medved is democratizing venture capital for investors and founders through his own startup, OurCrowd, headquartered in Jerusalem. Named a Wall Street Journal ‘investment of the week’, OurCrowd is a hybrid of angel investing and venture capital. Medved, one of Israel’s leading venture capitalists, founded OurCrowd in 2013 and, despite recent downward trends on global markets, is holding his own with investments that have resulted in more than a few successful exits and a stable return. I spoke with him recently to learn more about his revolutionary business model.

Image: Jon Medved, Founder, OurCrowd Credit: OurCrowd

Over the last several days I have seen numerous articles and had numerous conversations about treatment and prevention approaches meant specifically to replace FDA-approved pills and surgical interventions. Mostly these alternatives come in the form of health services now thought to be more effective or equally effective as compared to their more “medical” counterparts. These alternate approaches often include three components: cognitive behavioral therapy, focused exercise, and targeted nutrition. Sometimes they also include other types of services or programs, such as mindfulness or breathing exercises. What they don’t include is traditional medical products. No drugs, no devices, and thus few to no negative side effects.

Physician entrepreneurs or wannapreneurs ask a lot of questions about the processes of biomedical and clinical innovation and entrepreneurship. Given their lack of training in medical school, it comes as no surprise and most have to get the information on their own.  Maybe these answers to your FAQs will help:

Four innovators with four very different ideas for improving higher education brought their pitches to The Chronicle’s second-annual Shark Tank: Edu Edition during the South by Southwest Edu conference in March.

They included a professor with technology that turns students into moving elements of classroom visualizations, an entrepreneur whose company aims to ease the process of hiring adjunct instructors, a nonprofit organization supporting working-adult students as they pursue competency-based degrees, and a consulting organization proposing the establishment of a new kind of educational advisers, supported with federal dollars, to help students navigate an increasingly "unbundled" education system.

Today, a $2.3 million private-public partnership called the Global Accelerator Learning Initiative (GALI) is releasing its first major report, in collaboration with Village Capital, a seed-stage accelerator that operates development programs for early-stage entrepreneurs around the world.

Led by the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE), the goal of GALI is to determine how effective accelerator programs really are and how to develop best practices in different regions, given there are roughly 500 now dotting the globe.

Image: http://techcrunch.com

There is an urgent need to link research to finding solutions to societal problems with the involvement of industry, says V Ramgopal Rao, the newly anointed director of IIT Delhi. In an email interview to ET's Prachi Verma Dadhwal, his first interview since being named the director, he says the institute needs to focus on higher citations for research and attracting more foreign students and faculty. A leading researcher in nanoelectronics, who helped create a startup, Nanosniff Technologies Pvt Ltd at IIT Bombay, he says more companies need to be incubated on campuses in the country. Rao, currently the PK Kelkar Chair Professor for Nanotechnology at IIT Bombay, will assume charge at IIT Delhi around mid-April.

Image: There is an urgent need to link research to finding solutions to societal problems with the involvement of industry, says VRamgopal Rao, the newly anointed director of IIT Delhi.

The job of chief financial officer (CFO) may sound like a nightmare assignment to technical entrepreneurs, but the tasks and skills required are key to every new venture. In addition, if you are already a CFO, this position is a great springboard to the chief operating officer (COO) or even the CEO position in the startup, based on recent reports. Investors love to see a former CFO running a new business.

The administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is opposing the concept of “innovation districts” proposed by the finance committee of the Connecticut General Assembly, arguing the bill would only add to the state’s fiscal woes. The first Senate bill introduced in 2016 legislative session, the proposed act would funnel provide $25 million in grants to newly designated innovation districts, along with the same amount to business accelerators throughout the state and $60 million as loans to startups.

Image: Tyler Sizemore / Tyler Sizemore

As I wrote last week, the annual Global Entrepreneurship Congress brought to light new insights for policymakers as to how the world can develop more robust ecosystems for our entrepreneurs and their investors and supporters. Over the next few weeks I plan to dive deeper into some of the learnings and outputs on specific topics. Today, we look at early stage investing.

My personal experience has taught me that growing a business, whether organically or by acquisition, is never easy. Coupled with my experience working with other entrepreneurs who are distracted easily by shiny, new opportunities, I recognized the need to develop a quick way to assess or evaluate new ways to grow a business.

These five simple rules have served as a valuable tool to set boundaries for quick-start entrepreneurs by preventing them from pursuing unprofitable, costly new lines of business, partnerships, business acquisitions, etc.:

Doctors and physician entrepreneurs are dealing with a lot of change and typically use three ways to cope:

1. Ignore it, just hoping they can stick it out until they retire, get fired, get sick, become disabled, or die

2. Move on to something else

3. Embrace it and adapt. Float down the river.

Image: http://www.hcplive.com

What is the difference between working “in” your business and working “on” your business?

When you work in your business you live day-to-day, because you are engrossed in the daily operations of your work. When you work on your business you’re focused on the big picture.  And your ultimate goal is to create a business that can be easily taken over by someone else, should you ever want to move on.